Life Changing Moment
by April10163
Summary: Elliot reflects on his first few days knowing Olivia.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to SVU**

This is written in Elliot's POV

It is said that there is one significant moment in each of our lives that changes everything; one event that will alter the course of your life for better, or for worse. I, Elliot Stabler, was lucky. My moment had been for the better. The event that had changed my life was the day I met Olivia Benson.

I remember it clearly. It was the day after my partner of ten years had retired. The captain called me into his office to introduce me to my new partner.

"Elliot" he said, "meet your new partner, Olivia Benson."

You can imagine the surprise on my face when I saw that beautiful woman for the first time. I know it was rude and stereotypical of me but I never would have thought a woman who looked like that would turn out to be such a great detective. Obviously that thought had been horribly wrong.

"It's nice to meet you" Olivia said with an outstretched hand, and a smile.

"Nice to meet you too" I replied forcing a smile in return.

"Elliot, show detective Benson to her desk please. And introduce her to the rest of the squad." Captain Cragen demanded.

"Ok, cap. I'm on it." I left Cragen's office with Olivia following me while carrying a box of supplies for her desk.

"Here, I can help you with that" I offered.

"No thanks. I got it" she said with a smile.

That smile, wow. That smile was and still is absolutely breath-taking. I would soon find out that the woman that went with the smile was just as amazing.

"Well, this is your desk. I hope you like it because you will be spending a lot of time here."

"It's great. Just a few things and it'll be just like home." She said while setting her box on the desk.

"Since you're new here maybe I should introduce you to the rest of the squad"

"That's probably for the best. I think they would eventually notice I was here" she said.

"I'd hope so, they do call themselves detectives." I said and smiled at her. She was already winning me over with that great sense of humor. This partnership was definitely going to work out. So far her personality was perfect for the job. A sense of humor was necessary with all the terrible things we saw and dealt with every day. I just hoped she would be ok under all the stress that comes with this job, child victims, rape, and the elderly. I hoped she was different than most people that attempted this job. This one I knew I could get along with, I knew that if she stuck around we would be great friends. She would be an amazing partner.

"Hey everyone listen up" I shouted over the noise of the three other detectives at work. Everyone looked up and gave me their full attention. "This is Olivia Benson, she is my new partner" I announce to everyone. "Olivia this is detective John Munch, Monique Jefferies, and detective Cassidy."

"Hi, everyone it's a pleasure to meet you" she said with that gorgeous smile.

Everyone got up and shook hands with her. Yep, she was definitely going to fit in.

At seven o'clock that night everyone had left to go home except Olivia and I. I suppose it was as good a time as any to get to know her a little better.

"So Olivia…do you have any plans for dinner tonight?" I asked.

"No, not tonight why you wanna go grab something?"

"Yeah, I was hoping we could talk and get to know each other a little better"

"Sounds good to me, I like to know if I'm working with a psycho or not." She replied.

"I guess I should let you evaluate me your self, no sense in trying to convince you that I'm not crazy just yet. Who knows maybe I am." I said in the creepiest voice I could muster up while doing my best not to laugh.

"Why don't we go so I can satisfy my curiosity and find out" she stated.

After we got our coats, found my keys, and got in the car and drove for five minuets we arrived at a cute little café about twenty blocks away from the precinct. We settled into a booth in the back right corner of the restaurant. Pretty soon a waiter came and took our order. I ordered a cappuccino, and Olivia ordered a caramel latte.

"So tell me something about yourself" I requested.

"You go first" she said stubbornly.

"Ok, my name is Elliot Stabler. I am thirty-four years old. I'm married to a great woman. We have four children, Maureen is 15, Kathleen is 13, Elizabeth aka Lizzie is 5 and so is her twin brother Dickie."

"Wow, that is a lot of kids" she said

"Yeah, but their great kids. Do you want to meet them?" I asked. I knew my kids would love Olivia.

"Of course, I would love to meet you kids" she said with one of her amazing smiles.

"Are you busy tomorrow night? You could come and have dinner with Kathy the kids and I"

"Tomorrow night is good for me. Are you sure your wife won't mind?"

"No, she won't mind. She loves company. Besides she told me she wanted to meet my new partner."

"Ok then tomorrow it is"

"Great. I can't wait." I told her. "Are you ready to go it looks like their waiting on us to close"

"Yeah I'm ready"

"Do you want a ride home?" I asked her.

"No thanks. It's a beautiful night, I think I'm going to take advantage of it and walk."

"Well, in that case, I will see you tomorrow"

"You can count on it"

With that Olivia and I went our separate ways to two homes that couldn't be more different.

Work had gone by very quickly today. I almost couldn't believe that in ten minuets Olivia would be here. She would be in my house meeting my family for the very first time. By the looks of it we were not going to make a very good impression. The kids toys were scattered in the front yard and all over the living room. There was no time to clean up now. The doorbell ringing interrupted my thoughts. I went to answer it.

"Hi" I greeted as the door opened to reveal Olivia Benson in a pair of jeans and a blue v-neck sweater. She was holding a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne.

"Hi. Thanks for inviting me. Oh here" she said while handing me the champagne. "It's non-alcoholic so the kids can drink it too."

"Thanks. That is very thoughtful to make sure the kids were included" I said as I led her into the house where we were greeted with the sound of little footsteps as Lizzie and Dickie ran towards us.

"Hi" they said to Olivia. "I'm Lizzie and this is Dickie" Lizzie introduced.

"Hi guys, it's nice to meet you. I'm Olivia your dad's partner." Olivia said as she crouched to their level to talk to them.

"You must be Olivia" Kathy said as she walked into the room.

"Yep, that's me. You must be Kathy." Olivia said with a smile while she and Kathy shook hands.

"Its great to meet you. It's good to know who is protecting my husband everyday." She said.

Olivia just smiled in return. It was then that Maureen and Kathleen came into the living room. "Wow, dad was right she is pretty." Kathleen whispered to Maureen. "Very pretty" Maureen whispered back to her sister.

"Hi. My name is Maureen"

"I'm Olivia" she said as she and my oldest daughter shook hands for the first time.

"I'm Kathleen"

"Its nice to meet you Kathleen" Olivia said as she turned to greet my second oldest.

The smell of smoke interrupted the greetings. We all ran into the kitchen to find out what was burning. The source of the smoke was the pot roast Kathy was making. It had been in the oven to long and had caught on fire. After the fire was put out we decided to order pizza. About twenty minuets later the pizza had arrived and we sat on the front porch and ate our dinner.

"Olivia will you play Frisbee with us?" Dickie asked.

"Sure, I'd love to. Anyone else up for a rousing game of Frisbee?" she offered

"Not me I think I'm just going to go in and go to bed" Kathy declined.

Maureen, Kathleen, and I played. But instead of Frisbee we ended up playing football. It was Olivia, Maureen, and Dickie against Kathleen, Lizzie and me.

"Hut, hut, hike" Lizzie yelled as Kathleen hiked the ball. Lizzie tried to pass it to me but Maureen intercepted it. She passed it to Olivia who started to run for a touchdown.

"Get her daddy" Lizzie and Kathleen yelled at me. They cheered as I took off after Olivia. I caught up with her and tried to steal the ball. My efforts failed as I slipped in a patch of mud and fell on my ass. Olivia never made the touchdown, she was laughing to hard to do anything but fall over. The kids too found my fall extremely entertaining.

"Oh, so it's funny is it?" I asked Olivia

"Actually Elliot it's hilarious" she said still laughing.

"Are you sure of that" I asked her as I scooped up a handful of mud. The kids had seen it when I hid my hand behind my back and started walking towards Olivia. They yelled at Olivia to run "he has mud run away" they screamed as they ran to the house. Poor Olivia was locked outside with me and my mud.

"Elliot don't you dare" she warned.

"Sorry Livvy dearest but this is revenge" I said as I began to run at her with the mud.

"ELLIOT!!!" she screeched as she tried to run away from me.

It didn't take long for me to catch up with her. When I did I tackled her right into the mud puddle I had fallen into. The kids laughed hysterically as Olivia and I had a mud fight. I pinned her in the mud and took my index finger and drew a smiley face on her forehead. The kids went crazy after that. They came bursting out of the house to save their new friend. Olivia and I were tackled by the four kids. This was not looking good for me. They helped free Olivia. Once she was free she pinned me so the kids could do to me what the wanted. I ended up with a mud mask courtesy of my girls.

"Hey El, I better get going. We have to work tomorrow, and it's going to take a while for me to get all of this mud off." She said.

"Yeah, we better get to bed" I said

"When are we going to see you again Olivia?" Maureen asked.

"I don't know guys. But I'm sure it wont be to long." She said as each of the kids gave her a goodbye hug. Kathleen walked with Olivia to her car to say goodbye and get her instant messenger id so they could I.M. each other.

"Bye, kids, bye Elliot." She said as she got into her car. We all waved as she drove down the street.

That life changing day had been eight years ago. The day I met Olivia Benson was the day my future brightened. Now Olivia and I were closer than ever. She is my best friend, my lover, and soon she will be my wife.


End file.
